#mostly irrelevant

[arsenicflame]

It's a time-honoured tradition- every time Sam comes across Izzy (and Ed) in their travels, he asks Izzy to marry him. And every time, Izzy turns him down.

At this point, Sam is asking more for the sake of it than any belief Izzy will ever say yes, a remnant of childhood dedication touched with 30 years of heartbreak and regret- though even now, a small part of him still holds out hope. Sam's promises have only got more extravagant over the years, from a job as his first mate, to a captaincy, a fleet at his command, a whole fucking island if that's what Izzy wants- but he knows it isn't though, not really. If Izzy was ever going to agree to marry him, to leave his life and go with Sam, it wouldn't be for anything Sam could offer him. Izzy never did care for flashy shows of wealth, for a ship or to be captain. The only thing that ever mattered to him was loyalty given, and loyalty shown in return. 

It all comes to a head after Stede left and came back, after Izzy lost a toe, lost his leg. Sam hasn't seen him since before things with Ed started to really slide off the rails, before stress permanently set into the lines of Izzy’s face. So, when he sees a dishevelled man with a hoof for a leg in a no-name port, he doesn't even consider the idea that he might know him. It's only when he turns towards him, and Sam catches a glance at those oh too familiar tattoos, he realises this is Izzy, his Izzy, that stands before him.

Knowing Izzy's discomfort with pity, he doesn't treat him any differently than he would in years gone by, positioning himself in Izzy's line of sight before approaching and sweeping him up into a bone crushing hug. 

“Israel-goddamn-Hands!” he exclaims, as Izzy grumbles back a begrudging “Samuel-fucking-Bellamy”, a tradition almost as old as their friendship itself. Izzy might not hug him back, but he can’t keep the corner of his mouth from twitching, just for a second.

(If Sam holds Izzy a little tighter and a little longer than usual, well. That's his business)

By the time Sam lets go, most of the crew has appeared in the town square, drawn in by the commotion. They may have given Izzy his leg and welcomed him as one of them, but still there’s an underlying tension, with nobody quite ready to set aside everything that happened before the Kraken. Seeing him cosying up to an unknown man sets everyone on edge, unsure whether to come to their first mate’s aid, or to assume that they've been betrayed once again.

When Ed sees that the yelling was Sam, his hand goes tense where it's held in Stede's. He knows the routine, has seen it more times than he can count, but as he watches them part he realises that this is the first time in a long time he's unsure of what Izzy's response will be.

Knowing that something’s different, knowing that Izzy's feeling vulnerable already, Sam doesn't go for the same flashy proposal he’s been giving for years. He doesn't promise Izzy the world, he doesn't cause a scene (or, any more of a scene than he already has, anyway). He looks at the fractured man in front of him, takes his face in his hands, and says the exact same thing to him he said when they were little more than boys. “Israel, I have to ask you. I know what you'll say, but I have to try. Come with me. Marry me and sail away with me. I'll keep you safe”

And Izzy… hesitates. He glances over at Ed, at Stede, and says to Sam “...We’re staying in port for a week. Ask me again then”

That's the moment Sam knows there is something deeply, horribly, wrong. He's not just looking at an Izzy who got seriously injured in a fight and is struggling to cope, this is something so much bigger than that- and that Ed has something to do with it. Izzy wouldn't even be considering leaving if he didn't. Whether it was negligence or something more sinister, Sam doesn't yet know, but he intends to find out.

[diddlesnap]

this line always shocked me like i always forget peeta's popular because the only friend of his who's ever so much as named is delly. and they were really just friends when they were little kids.

[rockethorse]

The basegame wedding dress has a pregnancy morph??

[aroaceleovaldez]

Something something Jason feeling like he doesn't quite fit as "Greek" or "Roman" as a metaphor for bisexuality, particularly the semi-canonical bi-coding in his half of experiences during the Cupid scene and how Favonius and Cupid speak to him in parallel to the scenes confirming Nico is gay.

Something something the camps as metaphors for traditionally acceptable forms of relationships and Nico living as a rogue outside of them, rejecting expectation (ergo in himself representing a metaphor of queer identity and living outside of boxes and defined/usually hetero-allonormative/binary ideas of what love/relationships should look like) versus Jason struggling with the expectation to conform to a label and even discussing with Nico both of them remaining at CHB together.

Something something the inverse of Jason shifting away from the camps after he breaks up with Piper, feeling lost and unable to find a place between the camps as he begins to explore his queer identity properly for the first time versus Nico only remaining at CHB because he has entered a relationship. In this essay I will-

[ganondoodle]

sometimes i wish i was one of those artist that make people go "this is a PAINTING???" or "with WHAT programm/medium???" but its just not what i can do or find fun :/

[theteapotofdoom]

Horikoshi creating Tomura was a stroke of genius for many reasons but it was a specific galaxy brain move to write one of his most terrifying and dangerous antagonist as a bratty bored 20 year old.

Because Tomura’s true power is not his decay quirk or his clever ruthless mind, it’s that he will look at you dead in the eyes after you explained him your whole backstory/philosophy/reason for living and he will just go "cringe lmao who cares" and like then he kills you but actually you’re already dead because how do you recover from that …

[aalghul]

when it comes to being willing to make concessions on methods & morality specifically in exchange for gaining batman’s trust & access to the inner bat circle vs rejecting an existing trust & access (because it did exist prior to jason’s death & would have existed had he chosen to walk back in with no radically opposing beliefs after lost days #1)….jason should never choose the first

[supergraphicultramoderngirl]

what do you mean you don’t “agree” that riz is aro. HES LITERALLY GREEN.

[spinus-pinus]

Goldeneye sp. Bucephala sp.

2/13/2023 Tracy Aviary, Utah

[sysig]

He needs so much attention, all the time (Patreon)

[oshinohoshi]

In which I ramble about an Oshi no Ko mystery

To this day I am haunted by the question: How many members of the Ai Hoshino fan club were present when Ai gave birth/Gorou died and what where they doing there anyway?

In case you forgot who the Ai fan club members are, their names and ages at the time:

Founding member Hikaru Kamiki (15)

Vilest member of the year 3x award winner Ryosuke Sugano (18)

Most talented and sexually repressed member Nino Fuyuko (somewhere around Ai's age of 16)

Let's address who was there

Tsukuyomi told Ruby in ch 79 that on the night Gorou died, a college student and a middle school boy were present: Ryosuke and Hikaru.

However, in ch 160 according to Hikaru's statement and a flashback, Ryosuke and Nino were present.

So what gives? Was Nino there? Was Hikaru there? A few possibilities:

Tsukuyomi lied - I don't think so. She exists to explain the plot and pester the twins. Therefore, Ryosuke and Hikaru were there

Hikaru lied about Nino's presence and/or his knowledge of Gorou's death - There's really no reason to falsely add Nino to the story. As for Gorou, Hikaru is something of an unreliable narrator in ch 160. He said some things that are true - like the fact he technically didn't stab anyone or push them off a cliff lol - and at least one thing that was untrue - that he never thought of hurting anyone, to which Aqua replied that he wanted to hurt Ruby or at the very least made no effort to protect her from Nino. Personally, I think everything Hikaru said except for his statement about not wanting to hurt anyone is true, but this is up to interpretation. My reason for thinking this besides that I'm still clinging to the man he was before his character assassination in the final chapters is that the vibe Hikaru gives off is telling Aqua truths that are basically lies by omission.

Tsukuyomi didn't mention Nino because it's irrelevant to pushing Ruby into revenge against Hikaru* and from a story perspective, it allows the Nino twist to happen later. Also, Hikaru never actually said he wasn't present.

*Why did Tsukuyomi prod Ruby into revenge? I DON'T KNOW. DO WE KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT ANYTHING? NOT REALLY.

Anyway, point #3 is the most sensical to me. Therefore, all members of the Scooby-Doo gang were present.

What were they doing there?

Unfortunately, we're in the land of pure speculation. I would discount that Ryosuke had murderous intentions. Trying to sneak into a hospital to kill Ai and make it out undetected is just silly.

Ryosuke may have been there to verify Hikaru's story or simply because he's an obsessive stalker. Nino either had similar reasons or was dragged along for the ride.

Hikaru would likely have been there with the intention of meeting Ai. He just wasn't brave enough to do so. He may have wanted Ryosuke present for moral support or because an adult can do things like rent a car in a small town and attract less attention wandering around a hospital alone.

Does it matter?

Kind of? I guess it matters whether Hikaru knew Ryosuke had murdered someone when he sent him to see Ai. I think that even though Hikaru was present, he didn't know. Personally, I don't think a brokenhearted and fragile 15 year old was capable of manipulating others but that's up for the reader to decide.

It also matters to me because I was eagerly waiting for this to be cleared up. Would it have killed Akasaka to just make such things clear? I have a Nino/Ai fic to write. I need to know.

Final questions

Did Nino always wear cute hats? Did Ryosuke own anything other than hoodies? Yet one more thing Akasaka left up to interpretation.

[madamemiz]

So what's your opinion on Dr Dee and his kerfu(The Abandoned kerfus)?

ooooo ok so there's probably not much i can say that hasn't already been said or speculated on, but i'm pretty torn between two camps of thought on them:

1. dee is dead, and his body is stuffed in kerfu, which is where all the blood and gore comes from. there's a skull visible in the screen when kerfu is at stage three of the fight, and it would just be so fucked up if that was dee. the lore video does point out that they never found his body, which is funny considering we fairly easily find several remains and even more skulls. either they didn't look very hard at all, or none of them were him and they didn't bother to cover their tracks

2. kerfu became possessed, dee managed to subdue them, and then either could not or would not destroy them. he then burried them, never to be found again (except clearly that didn't work). dee may still be alive in this scenario, and the fact that monique recently released a full character model for him does make me suspicious. why fully render someone who won't be part of the story in some way? possible it's for a flashback, but either way there's probably something planned for him

either way, the event makes me sad. the description from the teaser video for it doesn't help

they don't mean to hurt anyone, they can't control it. it hurts. they don't want this. the ehole video is kerfu struggling to say "i love you" over and over. i'm gonna choose to take this as confirmation that kerfurs can, in fact, feel and think in some way, even the base models, which... oof. ouch. i do wonder who's point of view that text is supposed to be from, kel or dee? dee would make more sense in way (kel wouldn't have time to be emotionally attached enough to feel that bad for something actively trying to kill him, unless he like us, the player, is attached to his kerfur and has compassion for kerfu by association), but from the brief descriptions we've had of the guy, i can't imagine him treating kerfu as anything more than a tool... but maybe he pittied them in the end. who knows. the text is probably just meant to make us sad, but i still wonder

as a final note, i'm just going to point out that a few notes found in the game make it seem like all of the previous kerfurs were scary or not to be trusted. in the latest build of the game, the parts needed to upgrade to an omega are scattered around the map and the ai module is sunk in a safe in the bottom of the lake by one of the previous tenants. why? what happened with the previous models? did they all become possessed? will ours?

time will tell

[yardsards]

mostly joking toh theory: amity and emira are both trans girls, and the fact that they got to choose their names themselves is the only reason why neither of them ended up getting named "odalia jr."

[crossedwiress]

this night's a perfect shade of dark blue, dark blue have you ever been alone in a crowded room?

[cringeborg-moved]

Girls' Accessory Pantalettes - 4 versions

Hey! Do you want accessory pantalettes for children? Well, here they are! These were requested by @inlovewithregencyera.

BGC

Found in the leggings category

Come in 4 lengths - V1 is ankle-length and V4 ends a bit below the knees.

Pantalettes taken from Kirsten's Winter Outfit (though I do realize that's not where they're originally from. that's where I got em)

2 swatches - plain white and with a subtle lace texture at the bottom (which, in hindsight, isn't particularly noticeable in-game. But you can see it in CAS!)

Not all socks are compatible with the texture, but one pair I've found to generally work well are the Tea Socks from this pack

I don't recommend combining them with dresses shorter than knee-length or anything with preexisting pantalettes. It doesn't look good.

Some dresses also end up sort of... highjacking the pantalette texture.

HOWEVER, this can actually end up looking alright! While most pantalettes were white, they did sometimes match the dresses. But then again, the dresses were usually white as well.

Vertices: 289

Polygons: 289

Known issues:

They do a strange exploding thing in certain situations. I've noticed it in CAS, household portraits (the ones seen in the household manager), and the portrait in the bottom left corner in Live Mode. It doesn't seem to be an issue in gameplay though! And it only SOMETIMES occurs in cas. If it's very annoying, switching to another outfit and then back to the one you were editing should get rid of the exploding.

Some compatible dresses (used in the previews):

1: Qnie Child Long Sleeve Dress (direct download)

2: Cecile Nightgown

3: Josefina's School Outfit

4: 1896 CF Dress

Download (SFS) (i'm on sfs now!!)

Download (Mediafire)

[alexandria-alexis]

Seeing comments on media posts by f1 ‘fans’ saying that F1 is losing it’s way to entertainment because Max’ (sort of) step daughter was watching him and cheering him on and people find it sweet is baffling. The cars still drive round, guys, whether that four year old who adores Max is watching and the media is saying it’s sweet or not 😭 nobody’s making you follow their social media… You do that all yourself 😭 🫵